Beijing Gets LED Curtainwall

GreenPix-Zero Energy Media Wall is a groundbreaking project applying sustainable and digital media technology to the curtainwall of the Xicui entertainment complex in Beijing, near the site of the 2008 Olympics.

Featuring the largest color LED display worldwide and the first photovoltaic system integrated into a glass curtainwall in China, the building performs as a self-sufficient organic system, harvesting solar energy by day and using it to illuminate the screen after dark, mirroring a day’s climatic cycle.

The Media Wall provides Beijing with its first venue dedicated to digital media art, while offering the most radical example of sustainable technology applied to an entire building’s envelope to date.

With the support of leading German manufacturers Schueco and SunWays, the architect Simone Giostra with engineering firm Arup developed a new technology for laminating photovoltaic cells in a glass curtainwall and oversaw the production of the first glass solar panels by Chinese manufacturer SunTech. The polycrystalline photovoltaic cells are laminated within the glass of the curtainwall and placed with changing density on the entire building’s skin. The density pattern increases building’s performance, allowing natural light when required by interior program, while reducing heat gain and transforming excessive solar radiation into energy for the media wall.

The building opened to the public last month, with a specially commissioned program of video installations and live performances by artists including Xu Wenkai, Michael Bell Smith, Takeshi Murata, Shih Chieh Huang, Feng Mengbo and Varvara Shavrova.

Xicui’s opaque box-like commercial building gains the ability of communicating with its urban environs through a new kind of digital transparency. Its “intelligent skin” interacts with the building interiors and the outer public spaces using embedded, custom-designed software, transforming the building façade into a responsive environment for entertainment and public engagement.

CLICK HERE for more photos of the project.

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